Beat This Beginning: Crossfire

Last weekend as I started out on the road trip, I had the shuffle going in the car. As the opening notes of today's taste hit my ears, it was like I was hearing it for the first time. Now I have listened to this song hundreds of times, but that morning it sounded fresh and well... perfect.

So it hit me, if I've had this feeling on this song, there must be hundreds of songs where you know them note for note, but may still have missed something really juicy about them. And that's how we got here today.

Today we introduce a new feature which we will jump into from time to time, where we will highlight a song with a great opening riff. The song is "Crossfire" by Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Now if you've read this blog with any regularity you know SRV just makes me smile. He had it all, and we will never know his true greatness, but what he left behind is a legacy of which any musician would be proud.  As one of my top three guitarists, it's funny that the opening of "Crossfire" is not centered on his guitar work. Sure he comes in with some great punctuation, but an opening drum beat, a little bass and some hot keys all set the tone before Stevie drops in.

Of course the rest of the song ain't half bad, and Stevie kicks it up pretty good, but have a listen to how it starts.

Good stuff.
Leave a comment if you have any other great beginnings we should take a listen to.

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